Case Study
Owner
NTPC Limited
Project
130MW Ground mounted
Location
Bhadla, Rajasthan
Module Type
Polycrystalline
Connection Type
Grid connected & connected to Bhadla 220KV Pooling Station -1
Technical Specifications
Rated System Power
130MW
Inverter
Solar Grid Connected Inverter (104 nos.)
Number of Modules
440000
Coordinates
Latitude:
27.5N
Longitude: 72.0E
CO2 savings per Annum (approx.)
203942.4 metric tonnes
Space Coverage
663 acres
Annual Energy Yield
212.44 million unit(expected)
Project USP
- The 130MW NTPC project is one of the largest solar PV plant ever executed by Vikram Solar since its incorporation.
- The project is located inside the Bhadla Solar Park, built by RRECL, with basic infrastructural support like GSS, pooling station, bitumen road, approach road, street lights, construction water and land lease.
- Permissions from multiple government bodies were acquired and statutory norms were diligently followed during the installation and commissioning of the plant.
- This was the first-of-its-kind project under our supervision. In order to avoid soil erosion, murram spreading was done up to 1 sq. m. of the pile area for each of the 73,000 piles. Commissioning of 2 x 65MW blocks was done in 4 phases (40MW, 25MW, 25MW & 40MW).
- The solar plant was commissioned prior to the scheduled time and generation started about two months in advance, which is considered as an achievement on its own owing to the size of the project. The work started from 8th February and continued up to 24th March.
- Vikram Solar was the first among all the other bidders to commission the project successfully.
- One of the first helipads in the region was developed inside this project area block.
Challenges & Solutions
Soil & Land Strata: The land strata of the project site varied extensively with presence of small dunes in a sandy terrain. Naturally, the project team faced immense difficultly in moving the construction equipment and machineries. The project team encountered rocks at depth of 0.5 m, 1.5 mm and complete sand due to which the pilling work was done at 3 different depths in Zone A, Zone B & Zone C.
Mitigation: Temporary murram road was built to access the site for construction and moving of machineries.
Weather: Extreme weather conditions at the project site posed a problem. The summer temperature was as high as 50°C; from April to July, cyclonic storm ensued with prevalence of strong wind between 11 am to 4 pm and work came to a halt. Similarly, the temperature during winter was as low as 5°C (night).
Mitigation: Controlled working hours along with a dynamic work schedule allowed us to deliver the project on time. Continuous hydration of the workers ensured better productivity.
Local Manpower: The project’s major problem lied with local unskilled manpower.
Mitigation: We had to engage and train local workers for temporary works and hire tractors, trolleys and other small machineries locally to aid the process.
Construction Power and Water: This project had a multitude of problems. Firstly, there was an absence of a continuous power source. But arranging for it with immediacy was quite difficult considering the remoteness of the area. Also, quality of the available bore well water was not suitable for going ahead with the construction work in an uninterrupted way.
Mitigation: We procured power from RRECL for construction site and used Diesel Generator sets to get uninterrupted power. For civil works, we had to arrange for canal water from nearby areas.
Murram Sourcing: Sourcing of murram was a challenge in the area. The process of getting approval from the mining department was tough and required extensive compliances and certificates from our side.
Mitigation: We provided all the backings and fulfilled the compliances for getting the permission from the mining department for sourcing the murram.
Planning & Execution
Total 4,40,000 solar PV modules (approx.) were installed in the 130MW plant.
Total 7500MT of steel were used for the mounting of the module structure.
Each 65MW block has a unique switchyard which steps up the plant voltage from 33kV level to 132KV level with the help of 63MVA grid transformer.
Results
Expected Annual Energy Yield 212.44 million unit. The plant is also expected to reduce CO2 emissions to the tune of 203942.4 metric tonnes annually.
